Gam Gallery is excited to present this small exhibition in our studio space of large scale drawings by Madelaine Mongey.

In my drawing practice, I choose to use graphite due to the material’s immediacy and intensity. For this series of drawings, I use three types of graphite. By the handful, I smear the graphite powder, slowly building it up enough to cover the entire sheet of paper. The graphite stick is used to block in the denser silvery portions of the objects before later refining each one individually with pencil. These densely drawn pencil markings typically fill the lower portion of the drawings. I draw this part as organic shapes that butt up against each other to create a solid mass.

Using graphite powder as a primary material for these drawings is integral to the subject matter of my current drawings. These large black drawings are diptychs that detail intricate piles of coal. I find the textural quality of coal quite interesting- its shining obsidian surface, irregular jutting shards, and the lightness of its weight. Coal is a compressed mass of ancient organic matter that is extracted to create energy, which burns and pollutes. The stylized piles of coal that I draw are dirty and dusty things. The drawings, as the coal does in reality, blacken anything that it comes in contact with.

These drawings of coal are a personal metaphor, which represent the accumulation of thoughts that consume my time. My habit of continuously musing over past experiences which cannot be changed is the basis of this work. Drawing with black on black is a futile method for clarity, which speaks to the lack of clarity I resolve from asking myself repeatedly “what could have been”. Nothing changes, no matter how much time I dedicate to mulling it over and repeating it. The repetitive nature of these drawings speaks to how difficult it is to find and create a change – whether in terms of personal issues or in wider environmental terms.

Madelaine Mongey is an artist who lives in works in Vancouver. Madelaine’s drawings explore personal metaphor, memory, and nature. She is a recent graduate of Emily Carr University of Art & Design and draws predominantly in graphite.